Some critics of the use of these images say we are traumatizing women who have had abortions, that these images act as triggers that make them relive the abortion and the powerful negative emotions that followed. If that’s true, wouldn’t seeing babies in strollers or walking down a supermarket aisle stocked with baby products also be triggers? There is no practical way for a woman who has had an abortion to stay away from all the many things that will remind her of that irrevocable decision. That is one of the ways abortion harms women.

I agree that it’s unsettling to see pictures of tiny arms and legs floating in a sea of blood. But that’s the point; we should be unsettled. This is what happens in an abortion, and abortion happens thousands of times a day in this country. Every single day.

Pro-aborts don’t want anyone to see what abortion really is, which is one of the reasons they react so strongly to graphic images. But another reason is that they know, like we do, that graphic images change minds and save lives. I know this first-hand.

I have been outside abortion clinics with people holding these signs showing the victims of abortion and I have experienced the power these images have in saving lives. One time, while holding one of the signs outside a clinic in Charlotte, N.C., I was able to stop a couple headed inside to end the life of their unborn child. It was the picture of the aborted baby that got them to stop and talk to me. I was then able to bring them to a pro-life doctor in that town and he was able to help them make a life-saving choice.

Graphic images tell the truth. Though the images we are seeing almost daily of the atrocities committed by ISIS are brutal, they help us understand what this group is and the lengths they will go to achieve their goals. They underscore the need to take action to stop this slaughter. Likewise, though the images of aborted babies are disturbing and hard to look at, they help people understand what the “right to choose” really means and how important it is to stop it.

The baby I mentioned is just one of countless children who have been saved because of the use of the pictures of aborted babies.

Remember, America will not reject abortion until America sees abortion.